I May Be a Virtual Youtuber, but I Still Go to Work-Chapter 168

The decision to hold a concert came down to three main ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) reasons.

First.

[🥔Nutube]

Finish Line | Parallel Another (feat. Fan_C) – Official MV

Parallel Official | 589K subscribers

16.61 million views | 3 months ago | #Parallel #CAT #finish_line

The first collaboration song between CAT and the first-gen members—a project I had forgotten about with how busy things got.

And yet it racked up over 16 million views on the main video alone.

Over 100 Shorts videos featuring the track each pulled in over a million views.

The most viewed Nutube Shorts video from Movgun is now approaching 80 million views.

[🥔Nutube Shorts]

@Movgun

Mov Wick #Movgun #BattleColosseum

👀78.98M / 👍8.11M / 💬52,145 / 🔄247K

♬ Original Sound (Music Source: Finish Line – Parallel Another (Feat. Fan_C))

Second.

With the debut of the second-gen talents, the brand value of Parallel and its members was once again firmly proven.

Not just a group that fizzled out after a flashy first generation.

But proof that second-gen, third-gen, and all future artists have enough competitive strength to stand on their own.

The spike in searches and traffic during Ena’s debut stream lasted well into the next day, and directly boosted views on the second-gen debut track.

Even factoring in the baseline exposure from CAT producing the song—

Not only did it hit a million views in just two days, climbing up the trending music video charts, it even squeezed onto the trending songs list.

[🥔Nutube]

Lives Nearby | Parallel Nearby (feat. Fan_C) – Official MV

Parallel Official | 589K subscribers

1.63 million views | 3 days ago | #Parallel #CAT #Side_by_side

Trending Video #3

A whole different level compared to the first-gen days.

And lastly, the third reason—I'll let our CEO’s words, straight from a meeting with Producer Na Hyun-gon, speak for themselves.

“It’s our fanbase’s loyalty. That’s it.”

Apparently, our CEO shared Parallel’s merch and donation data with CAT and had a long discussion with their concert planning team.

They must have run the numbers.

Came to the conclusion that, yeah, we could probably fill out a concert venue.

But just because the higher-ups gave the green light didn’t mean we could ignore the logistics.

“Still, isn’t the Hwayoung Gymnasium at Korea University a bit too big to start off with?”

A massive venue used by not just famous domestic artists but also international stars.

Also regularly chosen for finals of major gaming tournaments.

Officially certified for large-scale events.

That’s the Hwayoung Gymnasium—6,000 seats, with a one-day rental fee of over 15 million won.

It’s basically a dream venue for Korean VTubers.

Bachubachu KR books it for solo and unit concerts all the time.

But hey, there’s a reason they call it a dream.

Six thousand seats?

Doesn’t sound that crazy, right?

Parallel’s average total viewership exceeds thirty thousand.

...That’s the kind of thought only someone who’s already deeply tied to Parallel and spends at least 100,000 won a month would have.

One of those people, apparently, was Seung-hyun, who had been listening in and said:

“Concert tickets are like 100,000 won, right? That’s doable, isn’t it?”

“Not really.”

Only about 15% of Parallel’s fans are willing to spend money without hesitation.

That includes the so-called Chairman-level superdonors, plus the top 25% of subscribers who regularly donate and buy merch.

Consistent donations and merch purchases basically signal a fan’s intent to go all-in financially. Parallel has always based its projections around that 15%.

So we can’t just take the 32,000 average viewers and expect them all to show up to a concert.

Being conservative, 15% of 32,000.

We’re looking at around 4,800 fans likely to attend.

That’s not enough to fill all 6,000 seats.

Seung-hyun nodded at that and added:

“Then... we’d have to increase attendance with some kind of marketing, or maybe lock it behind exclusive merch or special events, right?

Still, if it’s just 1,200 more people, that doesn’t sound impossible.”

The CEO shrugged.

“The problem is, the actual number’s going to be lower than what Gia just estimated.”

“Huh?”

Even though people call Korea the Seoul Republic, our fans are spread out across the entire country.

“No one goes to a concert and only spends 100,000 won. Especially fans from outside Seoul—they’re spending on travel, lodging... and come on, they’re not gonna leave without buying merch, right? Limited-run glowsticks sold only at the venue? Of course they’d want that.”

“Oh, that’s true!”

“So, when you factor all that in, fans from outside Seoul end up spending around 300,000 won on average.”

“Yeah... that’s a lot. Not easy.”

“That’s why people often organize viewing parties for them. If they can pay 30,000 won to watch in a theater with booming sound, what do you think they’d choose, Seung-hyun?”

“Well, unless someone’s absolutely dead set on owning merch... I think most would go with the theater.”

“Exactly.”

So that 15% shrinks even further—down to around 10% of the total viewer base willing to physically attend the concert.

That’s about 3,200 people.

And since Parallel’s recently had a lot of new viewers join in, we have to be even more conservative—realistically, the number’s probably below 3,000.

Not even half of the gym’s 6,000 capacity.

The one bit of good news? The concert is scheduled for early November, to celebrate the two-year debut anniversary of first-gen—so we still have three months.

I casually said to the CEO:

“Guess we’ll be running ourselves ragged for the next three months. Either we increase the total number of fans, or we find some way to kidnap more attendees. It’s one or the other.”

“We were saying the same thing during the meeting with Producer Na Hyun-gon. That second-gen debuted without issues and started streaming—that was the green light.”

“Well, yeah. Otherwise we wouldn’t even be setting the date.”

So, based on everything we’ve discussed, our schedule starting tomorrow is going to look something like this:

From August 1, for one month—

The first-gen members will work with the CEO (who’s also acting as the show planner) and CAT’s concert experts to build the setlist.

They’ll also prep the full stage layout and performance flow.

The gaps in the broadcast schedule during that time—right when the spotlight should be on second-gen—will be filled by them.

Since second-gen has three members, I’ll jump in for any content that requires even numbers.

Then in September, once the pre-concert prep is done, the first-gen girls will start choreography practice and vocal training, while easing back into their streaming schedules.

As the first- and second-gen talents collaborate more and show off their chemistry, we’ll finally make the announcement to fans.

[Parallel Another (First-gen) 2nd Anniversary Offline Concert – Coming Soon!]

[Second-gen will also appear as guest performers. Don’t miss it!]

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

In October, the first-gen girls would enter the final phase of concert prep, only appearing for pre-scheduled content.

Meanwhile, second-gen would push their solo streams and tournament appearances to cover for them.

And then, finally—November 3rd, Saturday. (Tentative)

The grand first-gen 2nd anniversary concert. Ba-bam.

I mumbled to myself while scribbling all of that like notes on a napkin.

“Growth in first-gen subscriber numbers is tapering off again, so how many fans second-gen can bring in will be key...”

The CEO spoke up from behind my shoulder.

“Fan_C’s activity results are gonna be pretty important too.”

“Yeah, Fan_C—wait, huh?”

I tilted my head, surprised to hear my utaite alias come out of nowhere—but thinking about it, the CEO had a point.

“Now that you mention it... am I attending the concert too?”

“Why wouldn’t you? The biggest hit among the first-gen tracks has your feature. Even if second-gen shows up as guest performers, they’re singing their debut track. That one also has your feature.”

“Mm. True.”

“If you’re really too busy, just say so. We can always replace your part with the studio version.”

I closed my eyes for a second, falling into thought.

Fan_C.

Fan_C, huh...

‘How many songs have I recorded so far anyway?’

It had been a hellishly busy few months, but after the first few tracks, I rarely needed retakes. So recording cover songs became almost automatic.

Once I handed in a clean vocal track, CAT handled everything else.

Not having to worry beyond that was definitely a perk.

Still, having done nothing but record on cue like a session robot, I had zero clue what was actually going on with the YouTube channel.

My own workload was killing me—no way I had time to track Fan_C’s subscriber count or celebrate view milestones.

Besides, I didn’t even start this utaite thing to get famous. The whole reason was to help the girls get more attention.

Which is why, for the first time in about three months, I opened up Fan_C’s channel—something I hadn’t done since I first typed the channel description.

And what I saw was... honestly surprising.

[🥔Nutube]

Fan_C 🎵

@Fan_C_CAT · 102K subscribers · 8 videos

I love Parallel

I’d recorded eight songs in just three months? That alone was a shock.

Four of them were originals by the members.

...Why do I not remember any of this?

Maybe because I’d been casually humming or listening to them so often they didn’t feel like “songs I worked on.”

And then there was the fact that the channel had hit 100K subscribers.

Apparently, it wasn’t the Parallel originals pulling in the views—but the four cover tracks with wider appeal.

The top-performing video had nearly 1.2 million views.

A song I sang has 1.2 million views?

Sure, the original version had over 100 million views, but still—there was something deeply moving about that number.

Not too long ago, I was stressing over how hard it was to get even one of the girls’ covers past a million.

But there was no time to be sentimental.

That number could end up being a wildcard to bring in new eyes for our concert.

‘If that’s the case... the collab track with Iyura in September becomes super important.’

I’d need to talk to CAT about it, of course.

But if I could just help bring in 500 more attendees, wouldn’t that be a huge win?

And if I revealed Fan_C’s identity around then... it’d definitely create some buzz.

‘No, wait—not yet. That’d be a waste to blow it now.’

Gotta remember—

The longer I keep Fan_C’s identity secret, and the higher I climb, the bigger the impact when it’s finally revealed.

So that trump card? Staying in the deck.

For now, the goal was simple: draw in more fans through second-gen and use that momentum to strengthen the overall Parallel fandom’s loyalty.

We’re going to fill all six thousand seats.

Which meant tomorrow’s housewarming collab with Ena was already crucial.

‘It’s the long-awaited follow-up after the cooking battle... feels like a waste to just do a basic chill stream, no?’

When a VTuber love triangle forms and a ship starts pulling ahead, when does the audience get the most dopamine?

Right when that ship starts crushing the others and pulling away like mad.

What about the losing side? Are they just gonna fade out quietly?

That lingering tension—something’s coming to flip the script—is exactly what gets viewers fired up.

And when that kind of chain reaction drama keeps going, you hit the peak of the soap opera arc.

As long as nobody gets too busy and drops out, the fight can keep going forever.

No clear winner, just constant back-and-forth.

So here’s the real question:

Between Ena, Maru, and the CEO... which one should I get involved with to spark the biggest explosion?

The CEO’s a roleplay god.

Maru’s a fool who once leaked something out of sheer jealousy.

Which makes the answer obvious: Ena.

[Me: Wanna play something like a board game after the move tomorrow?]

[Me: Just chatting sounds a little boring, don’t you think?]

[Me: You’ve got a Tetris Switch at your place, right? We could play Gomoku or Yahtzee or something.]

It didn’t take long for Ena to throw out her own suggestion.

Surprisingly, not a virtual game—but a physical, real-world board game.

[Ena: How about Twister?]

Twister.

The game where two or three people crawl all over a plastic mat covered in red, yellow, green, and blue dots.

You spin a wheel and place your hands or feet on the color it lands on, tangling yourself up with everyone else.

If you’re asking how VTubers can play that without 3D models, a motion studio, or VR—you’re still a rookie.

If you say, “Well, you just need the sound effects. That’s enough for the audience to imagine what’s happening,”—you’re a pro.

But if your first thought is, “It’s even dirtier because all you hear is the sound,”—

Congratulations. You’re a god-tier degenerate.

[Me: Let’s do it right now.]